


Sometimes the Oddest Things Bring Out the Best in Us.

by theatergirl06



Series: Quarantine Nightmares [2]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Gen, Have some fluffy fluffiness!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:24:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23400640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theatergirl06/pseuds/theatergirl06
Summary: The queens experience their first night after the stay-at-home order without screams. Instead, an odd dream and a bit of insomnia leads to two of the queens having a very important conversation.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn & Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves/Katherine Howard, Catherine of Aragon & Catherine Parr, Katherine Howard & Jane Seymour
Series: Quarantine Nightmares [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682281
Comments: 1
Kudos: 86





	Sometimes the Oddest Things Bring Out the Best in Us.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Enjoy my use of the word biscuit instead of cookie despite being an American, as well as my references to Gilmore Girls!

After a long night of drinking mint tea and watching baking shows with Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour felt closer to the second wife than ever before. She discovered that the “gremlin,” as they often called her, had a habit of yelling at the reality contestants, something Jane found both amusing and endearing, to her surprise. 

However, their surprising new bond didn’t change the fact that by the end of the night, they were both exhausted and struggling to keep their eyes open. So they agreed to take a nap after baking some muffins for everyone to grab, and bake the gingerbread castle Anne had chosen later in the day. 

Needless to say, Jane Seymour ended up sleeping until one in the afternoon, and unsurprisingly, when she woke up, there were two bowls on her desk, one full of an odd looking sausage and onion...thing, and the other full of pink glittery slime. Jane smiled. It was easy to guess which two queens had paid her bedroom a visit. 

She stepped out of the room to find the apartment in its usual quarantine state. Catherine and Cathy were surprisingly out of their rooms, both sitting on the couch, and as Jane walked by, she caught a few words that seemed to be about religious philosophy. She laughed. The godmother and goddaughter had always had a bond relating to intellectualism and learning, but this particular topic was one they discussed  _ very  _ often.

When she entered the kitchen, she found not one, not two, but six small bowls on the counter, as well as two giant bowls, an entire bag of flour, and more bottles of glitter than she could count. A grinning Anna poked her head out from behind the flour bag, completely covered in silver and gold glitter. 

“What…”

“I promised Kat I’d do an art project with her if she did a workout with me. We’re doing power yoga tomorrow. With Anne.”

“And yet I wasn’t included in this chaotic explosion?”

The two queens turned to find both Kat and Anne standing in the doorway, the former covered in glitter and the latter wearing a paint covered smock and a grin on her face. Jane smiled back at the beheaded cousins, glad to see Anne awake and well. 

“All right, loves. You can do this project with the slime, but you  _ have  _ to clean up when you’re done. And that includes yourselves.”

“Don’t worry, mum,” said Katherine. “Anne says you’re baking later, and I don’t think she’s going to want slime in her biscuits.”

Laughing, Jane left the kitchen to borrow Cathy’s laptop and figure out how to make gingerbread castles.

By dinnertime, the only things Jane and Anne had succeeded in were creating a bunch of gingerbread sitting in a pile of icing, covering themselves in powdered sugar, and laughing so hard their stomachs hurt. At least it tasted good. 

Unfortunately, that meant they had six hungry queens and no dinner to serve. So, despite all of her common sense, Jane gave in and let them order pizza as long as they put it in the oven to kill viruses. She smiled as she shared cheese pizza with Kat, watched Catherine and Cathy argue over whose half of the veggie/pepperoni pizza was better, and tried to stop Anna from eating a slice of Anne’s Hawaiian pizza on a dare. And afterwards, when dessert time came, she laughed some more as “Double Trouble,” also known as Anne and Anna, managed to get icing in everyone’s hair.

Suffice to say, it was a long time before everyone had finished showering. Jane had gone first because she, like Catherine and Cathy, took short showers, but after Anna and Kat, who took longer ones, had finished, Anne, who took the longest showers of all, was screaming as icy water splashed over her head. To everyone’s surprise, both Catherine and Cathy joined Anna and Kat in recording the second queen’s very loud swears. By the time she was finished, everyone was giggling, and Boleyn had murder in her eyes. 

“Next time, I’m going first.” 

Needless to say, Jane was in a very happy mood when she went to bed for the night. But she quickly discovered a little problem with her plans. Since she’d slept so late that day, she wasn’t tired yet at all. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t even pretend to try. She was too awake. 

So she did the next best thing and decided to take some time for herself this late in the night, seeing as it was something she rarely did. She knew Cathy would probably be awake as well, but the writer could be in a very bad mood if she was bothered while working. Besides, Jane needed a little alone time. 

So she used her mirror to mix up an herbal face mask she’d read rave reviews about on the internet. She put on soft, soothing piano music. She got out the lavender nail polish and painted her toenails. She got out the silver polish and painted her fingernails. She settled into her comfy armchair, Parisian murder mystery in hand. She  _ really  _ needed to do things like this more often, because this was really lovely. 

She was reading a chapter about the detective and her love interest when she was startled out of her routine by a knock at her door. Surprised but happy to see someone nonetheless, she answered, and was not too surprised to find Katherine standing on the other side. The youngest queen was one of the more frequent visitors to Jane’s room, night or day, and since it was right next to the stairs, she never had to go far. 

“What is it, love?”

Katherine took a deep breath, looking slightly shaken, but not nearly at her worst. “I had a bit of a nightmare. It wasn’t too bad, but I couldn’t fall back asleep. Anne said you made her tea last night, so I was hoping you might be able to make me some.”

Jane smiled warmly at her daughter. The 21 year old wasn’t officially related to her, of course, but Katherine had been in deep need of a mother figure when they’d first come back, and Jane had been more than willing. Kat had grown up a lot since then, and was able to stand on her own two feet, but she’d never stopped calling Jane  _ mum  _ and they still did things like watch  _ Gilmore Girls  _ together and do craft videos on the internet. “Of course I’ll make vanilla cinnamon tea for you, love. I think we have a little leftover gingerbread, too.”

So that was how Jane and Kat, mother and daughter, one of the first real bonds formed after the queens had returned, found themselves sitting at the kitchen counter at 11PM, tea mugs in hand and gingerbread biscuits on the table. 

“Do you want to talk about your nightmare, love? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Kat sighed. “No, it’s alright. It was actually a really weird one. We were in  _ Gilmore Girls,  _ and you were Lorelai and I was Rory, and it was really fun because we were eating super yummy food, and also Cathy was there for some reason. But then all the food turned into sand, and that wasn’t so weird either. But then there was this dark figure through the sand, and the sand was everywhere now. And I couldn’t tell who it was, but I knew that it was a man and that I didn’t want to be near him. I tried to run away, but the sand turned rainbow and it got thicker.” Katherine paused to take a bite of her biscuit. “And then I woke up.”

Jane wiggled her eyebrows. “Well, dreams are supposed to show your deepest fears, you know.”

Katherine giggled. “Yeah, you’re right. I must have a terrible fear of sand that I don’t know about.”

“Or  _ Gilmore Girls. _ ”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

Jane laughed and reached across the table to squeeze her daughter’s hand. “You know, as important as sleep is for all of us, I’m really glad you came down here tonight. We haven’t gotten to spend as much time together lately, so it’s nice to get this little teatime.”

Kitty grinned. “Mum, no one says teatime anymore.”

Jane huffed as she pretended to be annoyed. “Well excuse me, young lady, but I was born in the sixteenth century, so forgive me if I have some catching up to do!” 

Katherine laughed and took another biscuit, oblivious to the sudden change in Jane’s demeanor as a thought from the night before crossed her mind. She set her no longer steaming mug down on the table and grabbed her daughter’s hand. 

“Kat, while we’re both here...there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Looking concerned, Katherine set down her mug of tea and her cookie. “What is it? Is everything all right?”

Jane sighed. “It absolutely is. It’s just...well...the fact is…” Jane sighed, struggling to speak the words she wanted to say. “Last night, when I was checking on Anne, I saw you and Anna go into the same bedroom, and I really don’t want to intrude on your personal life, but I couldn’t help myself from...thinking.” 

Katherine rolled her eyes. “Oh, so it’s the sex talk.” Seeing the worried look on Jane’s face, she laughed. “Relax, mum. I’m not mad at you. You have every right to worry about me. But know that we’re being really careful. It’s really mostly just cuddling, anyway.” It didn’t escape Jane’s eyes that Kat’s face had begun to glow with a happy pink blush. Which made her worry even more, because her real reason for worrying wasn’t what she’d told Kat, and she hated herself for it. 

But if there was any time to share her true feelings with her daughter, it was now. Jane had seen what repressing emotions could do, even experienced it herself. She certainly was not going to fall victim to the consequences of that again. Besides, Katherine deserved to know the truth. 

“Look, Kat. The truth is, I’m not worried about what the two of you are...doing. That’s none of my business, and I trust you both anyways. But...there is something else I’m worried about.”

Katherine’s face was full of concern as she squeezed Jane’s hand. “What is it, mum?”

Jane took a deep breath. “It’s just...don’t misunderstand me, I’m really thrilled for you and Anna. I love how happy you two make one another. But even though it’s selfish, I find myself missing the days before you two dated, when I was the one you cuddled with at night. I’ve tried my best to stop it, but it’s a feeling I can’t control.” Jane was crying now, she could tell. “And I’m lying awake at night, worrying that my daughter, the first person I bonded with after we came back, who I love more than life itself, is going to ride off into the sunset with her girlfriend and leave her mum behind.”

Eyes full of tears, Katherine pulled Jane into a tight hug. “Don’t feel guilty, mum. Everybody has feelings they can’t control, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Pulling out of the hug, she made eye contact with Jane. “Look, mum, I can’t promise that I’ll come to your room every single night like I used to. I know we’re all changing, and that can be scary, but…” she squeezed Jane’s hand hard, “know that no matter what, I’m never going to forget you and all that you did for me when I needed you most. And I will never  _ ever  _ stop loving you. Do you hear me, mum? Never.” Seeing Jane’s tears still streaming down her cheeks, Kat took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, with me and Anna, or with anything else. But every time I picture the future, whether I’m getting married or I’m in the hospital for some reason or I’ve gotten lost on a camping trip, you’re always there. You’re the one celebrating with me, helping me, staying with me through thick and thin. You’ll always be that person for me, mum. I hope you know that I’m willing to be there for you, too.”

Jane smiled, and felt her face mask crack. “How did you get so grown up?”

Katherine grinned back at her. “I had a really great mum to help me, of course. Now let’s go get that green goo off your face, you look like an alien.”

Jane laughed as Kat pulled her down the hall into the bathroom. Quarantine was terrifying, but sometimes you ended up telling your family things you need to share. And sometimes, what you hear in response ends up making all the difference. 


End file.
